Future VS

Dec 01, 2025 9:25 pm

Greetings,

Before we start, a couple of things: Free Fantasy and Sci Fi and a sorta weird Xmas Book Sale that made me think: I have a Christmas book, so what the hell. Also, Dapper Men in eBook form will never be on sale on Amazon. They rejected the book citing that it will result in a poor customer experience. If you want to stick it to Amazon and make it a best seller on any of the other myriad of book stores online, feel free.

On with the fun:

I’ve been thinking about doing some nonfiction writing for a while now. Mainly because I’m not getting any younger, and I want to see my writing grow into a sustainable business. Don’t worry, for all of you who enjoy my fiction writing, I still plan to do it and see series like the Misfits of Carnt and Office Maxi through to the end (as well as more, I have no shortage of book ideas). But fiction for me has always been a hobby that pays for itself. All the money I make goes right back into cover art, editor fees, and a little bit of advertising when a new release comes out if I’m lucky.

I plan to spend a little less on advertising (because I believe you deserve good cover art and editing before anything else) and divert some of the funds to a nonfiction project that’s going to require a little cash to get off the ground. But before I unveil, let me reveal some of the secrets of the self-publishing world. It seems the fate of fiction writers (except the top 1%) is to sell their secrets of self-publishing through expensive online classes and other informational things that will sky rocket the hopeful writer to the Bahamas where they will be pumping out novels from their beach front home. However, they should write those novels quick as sea level rise is coming for those homes.

Gurus monetize people’s hopes and dreams. Now, I take no issue with selling to hopeful writers who want to take a crack and turning their passion into a business. I totally get it, to be a successful writer today, you need to be not just a good writer, but a marketer, graphic designer, web developer, social media expert, newsletter extraordinaire, etc. Where I take issue, is most of them have online courses that range from $1000 to I’ve seen as high as $25,000 (but it was on a Black Friday deal for $12,000 what a bargain!) for something you can learn about for free, or services, you can pretty much do yourself with some elbow grease and some grit.

I always thought that imparting your wisdom on others should range in the order of $9.99 for the eBook, maybe $20 or so for the paperback, and an audible credit for audio. But then I get these ads on Facebook for can’t loose systems that’s going to get my books flying off the shelf that make me feel as if the only reason I’m not successful already and living in my Bahama estate is the fact that I didn’t invest in their system that will teach me to sell books and only costs $5000, but if I act now only costs $3000 and my favorite pet.

Some of them, feel downright predatory in terms of they are cashing in a person’s desire to share their stories with the world, making big promises about how the course will change their life, and (here’s what to look for) offer very little data about how exactly they changed people’s life with their system. Sure, they have testimonials, but I want to see hard data. Here’s sales before the system, here’s sales after, here’s advertising costs, here’s the link to those books on Amazon. Here’s the freaking author of those books shaking the guru’s hand so we know the data is real.

But nope, no data, because of the simple fact that most systems don’t acknowledge the fact that you need a real good book to do well, and then you must compete with all the other real good books out there.

Because I loathe the idea of taking people’s money to sell them on their own hopes and dreams, I don’t want to join the ranks of self-published authors turned gurus, so I had to think a lot about what nonfiction endeavor I can do that fits the following criteria:

1. Something I enjoy

2. Reasonably priced

3. Teaches people something

At first, I thought science, because I love science, and I read a lot about it from articles to books. However, I’m not an expert, so I really would be nothing but a science news aggregator and there’s plenty of those. I do have a lot of expertise in job readiness (preparing people to find the job of their dream), but that’s my day job so in addition to a side hustle that could bleed into the dubious conflict of interest territory, I just didn’t want to do my day job as my side hustle. I mean I do it 8 hours a day, I got to do something different when I get home.

Which left me with economics. Like science, I love podcasts like Planet Money and Freakanomics but they already do a very good job of blending story telling with economics. Now, my talents are storytelling and comedy, so I needed something that could use those skills but also avoid the risk of becoming another aggregator. I needed a unique idea. One that blends my interest in economics where I can leverage my storytelling and sense of humor.

I created Future VS, an economics substack that blends investing with cage fighting. Each month, I’m going to pit two different investment opportunities together for no less than the fate of the future of humanity (see how I snuck science and sci fi in there!). Join me on my journey, where I put my real money into investments to see whose ideology will win the future. You can also kick back and watch me lose a bunch of money or gain a bunch of money. Who knows, but I will say it’ll be a wild ride. I mean if investment nonfiction can be considered wild, but dammit I will try my hardest to make it entertaining.

If you want to support me in this endeavor or just support me in general. There will be a way to subscribe on the substack. In exchange, there will be member’s only posts and I’ll toss out an eBook for free of the ones I don’t normally give away for free every month. If you want to become a Space Burrito Cat of Future VS, it’ll cost a little more (nothing compared to the gurus), you’ll be helping me get this endeavor off the ground without siphoning too much of my funds reserved for the fiction, and I’ll sign a physical copy of any of my books of your choice each year you’re a Space Burrito Cat and send it to you.

If you just want to subscribe for free, there’s that option too. At that level, you’ll get the monthly post of each investment battle royale, but will be missing all the deep dives and extras.

It will be fun, silly, and a great way to see how fucked or exciting the future will be, because instead of predicting what will happen, I plan to see what happens by investing in two different worldviews on how the world should operate, and then see what happens to those investments. If I lose my shirt, we’ll know it was a bad idea. If I get money, we’ll know a little bit about how the world works, which may be a source of joy or existential dread, either way, it will be a good time!

Check out the first Future VS post now.

Books to Consider

Maxi’s first week in a groundbreaking gamified workplace is disrupted by a snarling, drooling printer with large, pointy teeth and a murderous disposition.

Read Office Maxi today!